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Bonds jurors won’t be ID’d until after trial

FAC March 15, 2011

The identity of jurors in the perjury trial of baseball star Barry Bonds won’t be revealed until after the case is concluded, a federal judge ruled Monday. According to California Watch, which has been covering developments leading up to the March 21 trial, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said she was concerned that  “jurors could be approached or even harassed or offered money to provide information about themselves or the case” if their names

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For these seven, open government is a way of life

FAC March 14, 2011

In recognition of Sunshine Week, the Sacramento Bee’s Marjie Lundstrom has identified seven Californians who doggedly fight for open government. Heroes or kooks, she says, they share a common quality: They don’t take no for an answer in their persistent efforts to pry open government for all to see. Their drive for accountability has prompted new law and landed some of them in legal trouble. Never deterred, they keep pressing, in several cases fighting for

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Download Sunshine Week Coast to Coast

FAC March 14, 2011

Sunshine Week 2011 has arrived and this year FAC has partnered with the NFOIC (National Freedom of Information Coalition) to provide a mobile version of their comprehensive Sunshine Week listings. Sunshine Week Coast to Coast, featured on FAC’s iPhone App, iOpen Gov, is  a guide to the events, resources, editorials, news and special features happening nationwide. The free app for iPhone, iPodTouch and the iPad, enhances the event listing with app tools that make it

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Government data a boon to consumers

FAC March 14, 2011

Transparency isn’t all about holding government accountable. As more and more information collected by government goes online, consumers are reaping a different benefit. Writing in the New York Times, Richard H. Thaler, a economics and behavioral science professor at the University of Chicago, describes the payoff: potentially life-saving access to product recalls, airline pricing, job-hunting information, real-time tracking of bus and train arrivals and more. Data, the Times observes, is not dull. Thaler’s discussion of

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The U.S. is alone among western democracies in protecting “hate speech.” Chalk it up to a healthy fear of government censorship.

FAC March 14, 2011

BY PETER SCHEER—An inebriated John Galliano, sitting in a Paris bar, unleashes an anti-semitic rant (“I love Hitler”) that is captured on a cellphone camera and posted on the internet. Within days the Dior designer is not only fired from his job, but is given a trial date to face criminal charges for his offensive remarks. In the same week, the U.S. Supreme Court extends First Amendment protection to the homophobic proclamations of a fringe

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